Solid state properties of lithium doped nickel oxide samples and their catalytic activity towards isopropanol (IPA) decomposition have been studied. Electrical resistivity, surface area and lattice parameter decrease with doping which is due to substitutional incorporation of Li into the nickel oxide lattice. IPA undergoes only dehydrogenation on all the samples, dehydrogenation activity increasing with increased doping. There is a small but regular decrease in the Arrhenius activation energy with doping. The increase in catalytic activity on doping is attributed to the increase in hole concentration which is likely to favour the desorption of acetone, the rate determining step of the reaction.

Decomposition of 2-propanol has been studied on vanadium pentoxide with MoO₃ and WO₃ additives. It has been observed that a small amount of the additives increases the dehydration activity of the catalysts, but at 5% or higher concentration, dehydration of 2-propanol decreases. The initial increase followed by a decrease in the dehydration activity with increased amount of additives is due to the change in the rate-determining step. Addition of MoO₃, WO₃, and alkali metal oxides to vanadium pentoxide has similar effects on the V⁴⁺ concentration and catalytic activity. Based on the results of the kinetic and ESR spectral studies, a scheme for the reaction has been proposed. It is concluded that the concentration of V⁴⁺ ion plays the crucial role in these catalysts.

The reduction of α-Fe₂O₃ and Li_0.5Fe_2.5O₄ by hydrogen has been studied to characterise the stages of reduction. The course of reduction as followed by TGA and Mössbauer spectroscopy indicates that (i) in the case of α-Fe₂O₃, the reduction to metallic iron goes through the intermediate formation of Fe₃O₄, and (ii) in the case of Li_0.5Fe_2.5O₄ the reduction proceeds in a single step to give a mixture of LiFeO₂ and Fe.

Monophasic compounds with composition Fe_1−x Cu_x Cr₂Se₄ (0≤x≤0·2) have been prepared. The compounds have defect nickel arsenide structure. The compositions are semiconductors with low energy of activation. Their Seebeck coefficients are temperature-independent. The compositions x=0 and 0·1 show temperature independent paramagnetism except for a small hump around 210 K. The peculiar behaviour of the susceptibility-temperature plot for the composition x=0·2 is not understood.